This invention relates to a device for measuring fluorescence polarization, and more particularly to a device for measuring fluorescence polarization permitting to measure the degree of fluorescence polarization in a short time and moreover suitable to measure its variations in time.
In a prior art device for measuring fluorescense polarization, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,486, an analyzer is rotated alternately to 0 (radian) and to .pi./2 (radian), and the parallel and orthogonal components of the polarization are measured with a predetermined interval. That is, according to such a prior art technique, in order to obtain a degree of fluorescence polarization, it is necessary to rotate the analyzer from 0 to .pi./2 and no measurement can be effected during the period of time when the analyzer is rotated from 0 to .pi./2. Consequently, the time during which measurements are effected is short with respect to the whole measurement time and thus efficiency is low.
Heretofore measurements of the degree of fluorescence polarization were effected, principally for the purpose of research, in order to know its variations before and after chemical reactions. Consequently, since chemical reactions were terminated and thus there were no variations of the degree of fluorescence polarization in time, measurement time did not need to be limited. Therefore, heretofore, in fluorescence polarization measurements it was possible to obtain satisfactory results by the method by which the analyzer was rotated between 0 and .pi./2 and the parallel and orthogonal components were separately measured.
Incidentally, recently, it is required in particular in the field of the immunology to measure variations of the degree of fluorescence polarization in time during the process of chemical reactions. However, in the case where variations of the degree of fluorescence polarization in time were measured, it was a problematical point that the variations in time could not be measured with a high precision, because, according to the prior art method by which the parallel and orthogonal components were measured separately, the interval between two successive measurements of the degree of fluorescence polarization is limited by the time necessary for the rotation of the analyzer.